Mortal Kombat is one of the most popular fighting game series. The latest addition to the series, Mortal Kombat 1, serves as a retcon to the universe with new gameplay mechanics and characters. Mortal Kombat has long been an industry leader when it comes to graphics, game design, and optimization. It only helps that the game itself is very fun and the combos are straightforward to make and pull off. This significantly reduces the learning curve for gamers but it has a virtually untouched skill ceiling. In addition to killer graphics, MK 1 is so well-optimized that it can be played on the Steam Deck. The default settings themselves are very playable but you will need to make some tweaks to hit the 60 FPS sweet spot. So, in this guide, we have shared all the details regarding the best settings to get high FPS and performance on your Steam Deck while playing Mortal Kombat 1.
60 FPS is considered the standard framerate for most, if not all, fighting games. Since this is such an achievable mark, a lot of even low-powered devices can achieve it, albeit at the cost of lower graphical fidelity. This is also mostly the case with a lot of Steam Deck games. Mk1, however, seems to be different in that you need less to get a lot out of it. You also need 60fps in these games because a lot of combos are measured in frames and having lower than 60fps will put you at a serious disadvantage.
Best Mortal Kombat 1 Steam Deck Settings for High FPS & performance.
The best Steam Deck settings for this game are a matter of constant debate. Because of how settings can be customized, there are a lot of variables at play. There is, however, a general and recommended setting preset for the maximum performance and graphics out of your machine. You can always start at the preset and then work your way to your preference. If you do not like the settings at this preset, you can change and opt for different features and play the game differently as well. Here are the most basic settings (preset) that you can change:
Graphics
- Video Mode: Borderless/Windowed
- Screen Resolution: 1280×800 (16:10)
- Render Resolution: Default
- V-Sync: Off
- Graphics Preset: Low/Medium
- System Cursor: Off
- Upscaling Method: FSR 2
- Quality: Balanced
- Sharpness: 50% (around this mark is fine)
If you want to use Intel Upscaling (XeSs),
- Quality: Ultra Quality
- Sharpness: 20% (around this mark is fine)
Advanced
- Texture Quality: Medium
- Shadow Quality: Low
- Anisotropic Filtering: 4x
- Bloom: Off
- Ambient Occlusion: Off
- Reflection: Off
- Chromatic Aberration: Off
- Particle Density: Medium
If these settings do not work for you, you can also use the ‘Low’ settings preset and begin working from there. We would also like to add that the following needs to be updated for your Steam Deck to play this game at that 60 FPS target:
- Proton Version: Latest
- FPS Cap: 60
- Screen Refresh Rate: 60Hz
- TDP limit: Off
- Half-Rate Shading: Off
- Allow Tearing: Off
- Filter Scaling: Linear
Once you make these changes, you will see an immediate increase in the performance of this game on your Deck. Despite these settings, there will be occasional frame drops and you might struggle a little in online modes (other than the Kampaign) but overall, it is quite playable and enjoyable on the Deck. We would also like to point out that the game will see the most benefit from being installed on the internal SSD of your Steam Deck rather than an external MicroSD card.
Anyway, that is all we have on Mortal Kombat 1 and the best settings to get high FPS and performance on the Steam Deck. If you found this guide helpful and would like to read more such content, head over to Android Gram.
